October 2007
At long
last restrictions on movement of livestock because of the foot and mouth
outbreak in England have been lifted and sales of livestock can return to
normal.
There has
been real hardship in many places with prices, especially of breeding
sheep well below last years prices and not being able to sell has meant
extra mouths to feed on grass, which has little feeding value at this
time of year.
I was very
disappointed that the National Show at Turriff was cancelled as I was
really looking forward to judging it and apparently there was a first
class entry with cattle entered from as far away as the South of England.
William
judged the Irish calf show at Carrick-on-Shannon last week and found the
quality of what he judged to be very good. He also visited four herds and
was impressed with what he seen. He would like to thank all those who
gave him a great welcome and also for their hospitality
Cathie and I
attended the World Secretariat meeting and Tour in Ireland in August and
found it to be a great success in spite of the Tullemore Show being
cancelled because of the weather. The organising of the event and tour
was first class and the Irish Angus Society must be congratulated on the
wonderful job they did. Cathie and I would like to thank everyone for the
wonderful Irish hospitality we had and we have many happy memories of the
good cattle we saw and the great time we had.
We are now
preparing for our 6th Matron’s Sale which will now take place
on the 12th November. The full catalogue can be seen on our
sales page as the postal strikes have caused such disruption that the
catalogues may not reach you in time.
I think this
is the strongest group of females we have ever sold with the ten cows
with which we rebuilt the herd after our very successful 80th
Anniversary Sale all included along with a great group of young heifers.
All are in calf to The Moss Mr Eshton D409 whom we purchased along with
James Porter for 36,000 guineas.
The first
calves by Mr Eshton are very impressive with an exceptional group of
heifer calves, five of which we will show at the National Calf Show on 21st
November. There are also some real potential stock bulls among his bull
calves.
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